


we work well together (like two halves of a whole)

by bangtrashsyd



Series: broduce 101 [2]
Category: Produce 101 (TV)
Genre: i live for this pairing Jesus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-22
Updated: 2017-10-23
Packaged: 2018-11-03 07:32:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10962603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bangtrashsyd/pseuds/bangtrashsyd
Summary: Jonghyun's always been the self sacrificing, passionate and kind leader. Unfortunately, Hwang Minhyun is not the same.(so this one is The Dark Side of Minhyun's CEO tedencies bc I'm a loser and can't see the silver lining in a goddamn white cloud)(( ifto survivemade you cry you probably shouldn't open this. just warning you!! ))





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> this is a character study piece I'm trying so uh-
> 
>  _not_ compliant with anything I've written so far so this is a stand alone.

"Jonghyun-ie?" Minhyun asks into the darkness, waiting for a response. The other groans, and Minhyun takes it that he's awake. 

Minhyun ditches his headphones to perch on the arm of the couch Jonghyun has collapsed on in the studio.

"Yeah, Min?" Jonghyun's voice is raspy and tired. Minhyun shoves the little guilt he feels into the back of his mind, feeling the need to calm himself.

"Will we be okay?" He asks, and Jonghyun sits up suddenly.

It might have been the waver in his voice, or the slip in the friendly, nuturing mask he always kept on, or the tears in the corners of his eyes. It might have been all three. Jonghyun pulls Minhyun down into his lap anyway, awkwardly fitting his arms around him. Minhyun feels the press of Jonghyun's nose into his back and exhales shakily.

"We don't have a choice." Jonghyun's voice is final and unyielding, contrasting the warmth of his fingers brushing circles into the back of Minhyun's palm. "Do you understand?"

Minhyun gulps, and he closes his eyes.

"No matter how much we fight, no matter how much we practice, sweat, cry or  _bleed-"_ Jonghyun cuts himself off, sounding desperate. "No one  _cares._ No one is going to hold our hands and promise us it'll be okay."

Minhyun nods, embedding the mantra in his mind.

"We only have each other." Minhyun continues, slipping off Jonghyun's lap and onto the cushions. "We promised, to fight, defend and love each other. Because we are  _always together."_

"And never apart." Jonghyun finishes, hands coming to grasp Minhyun's in an iron grip. Minhyun nods.

"Are you ready?" He asks his best friend, and Jonghyun shakes his head.

"I don't think I will ever be." He replies softly, voice trembling with vulnerability. Minhyun thinks about warm summers with watermelon and practicing in studios for so long the mirrors fog over with the heat of their sweat. 

"Would you have wished this?" Minhyun asks, eyebrows furrowing. "To have gone to another company, to debut with another group-"

"Never." Jonghyun says, and Minhyun catches a glimpse of the soft, molten iron of determination that has been his pillar of strength the past seven years. 

 

Minhyun screws himself over during reevaluations and somehow his mind automatically flickers to Jonghyun's disappointed expression. It shocks him at how upset he feels, and he spends the next few days while the trainers decide the new rankings practicing over and over again. He makes it all  _perfect._  

He won't let Jonghyun down too.

 

Too late, he thinks dully. He's been reassigned to D, and the shocked, broken look in Jonghyun's eyes pierce his heart.

He avoids his eyes, and makes his way to one corner to hide.

 

"Why the _hell_ are you in D?" Jonghyun screams at him later, locking the both of them in a private training space. "What on earth were you thinking?"

"Shut up." Minhyun says, turning away from him and fisting his hair into little bunches. "Go away, Jonghyun."

Jonghyun's hand catches his shoulder, and Minhyun jerks away almost violently, nearly slamming himself into the door.

"Is everything alright?" A female staff's voice rings out from the other end of the door and Jonghyun curses, pushing past Minhyun to greet her.

"Yes, noona. Sorry for the trouble." Jonghyun sounds truly apologetic. Damn him and his stupid, noble morals. Jonghyun stumbles back to Minhyun, closing the door with his foot. He collapses into Minhyun's arms, and Minhyun grabs him before he hits the ground.

"Jonghyun-ie?" Minhyun asks in worry, helping him onto the floor.

"I'm so tired." Jonghyun says suddenly, then covers his mouth with his hand as if he's uttered a taboo.

"It's okay." Minhyun comforts him. They depended on each other like this, he realises with a pang on his chest. Always taking, always giving, until their souls were split evenly between the two of their bodies. 

"I'm sorry for shouting." Jonghyun whispers. Minhyun slaps his ass as he gets up to retrieve a bottle of water to sooth their throats.

"Stop apologising." Minhyun snaps, making sure to lean Jonghyun's head on his shoulder before he falls into a deep sleep. If he doesn't Jonghyun's neck will hurt even more, and he won't be able to dance. "I deserve it."

 

"Hwang Minhyun." Lee Daehwi says, and Minhyun jumps at the unexpected event. 

As he goes down to stand next to Boa, his mind automatically saves a spot for Jonghyun. He analyses the trainees standing in front of him with a keen eye.

Daehwi, for some reason, had chosen all the popular trainees. That meant Minhyun had to win with pure  _talent._ Yet, his gaze lands on a certain Kwon Hyunbin in the back row.

Kwon Hyunbin was an enigma. Minhyun had been quite taken with him at the Seoul Fashion Week Minki had forced him to attend. He was handsome, sure, but had a soft, puppy like quality that made Minhyun want to cuddle him.

He decides to make the sacrifice, stuffing his team with strong rappers, dancers and singers before allowing himself to pick Hyunbin. Jonghyun, Hyunbin and the Daniel kid were rappers, he remembered. Jaehwan, Seongwoo and himself were singers. That should cover any song they were going to pick. He knew Jonghyun, Daniel and Seongwoo leaned more toward dancing, so in that case Hyunbin would have some help. Jaehwan would likely require some assistance, since he was an individual trainee, but his dancing skills were not as lacking as Hyunbin. Seongwoo would be an ideal center, since he was a Fantagio trainee. He also overheard the night before the staff's attention on Daniel. He would be popular soon.

A little experiment, Minhyun draws the verdict. If Hyunbin was a flop, he could always drop him. 

 

Minhyun regrets his decision slightly later. Kwon Hyunbin is as stiff as a wall, and he doesn't quite know how to put his limbs where they are supposed to be. He honestly doesn't have the energy nor time to deal with him, however. He's not a bad dancer, but he takes a long time to memorise choreography. He lets Jonghyun tutor him, remembering that Jonghyun took to dancing like a fish to water. He always remembered the moves annoyingly quickly, always ahead of the rest. 

Minhyun spots Hyunbin's laughable attempt at footwork, and sighs. Hyunbin is honestly  _adorable._

"You can do this!" Jonghyun encourages, and Minhyun wryly wonders who the other is trying to convince.

 

Minhyun's in trouble.

He's been so caught up in making the team passable that he's let the group of little shits into his goddamn heart. 

It starts out like this.

First it's his automatic response to ask for six bottles of water and not two. He's mystified at the collection of bottles in his arms, walking back to the practice room. Immediately bombarded by the hugs of a sweaty Seongwoo and Daniel who relieve him of his burden, he can only think it over much later in his bunk. Hearing the noise of Jaehwan's snores, he realises with faint alarm that he  _doesn't_ want to kill the other for disturbing his beauty sleep. He even thinks of him  _fondly._

_Oh my God._

It was Jonghyun who pointed out the next occurence.

"You're mothering." His voice is tinged with amusement, and Minhyun stops in his tracks.

He had been packing up the dorm, shoving the boys' repective stuffed toys under their beds, flinging dirty clothes into the laundry baskey and arranging the bottles of beauty products into meticulous rows on the little desk. It's with a bleated realisation that he realises Jonghyun's followed behind him as he picked up the bag of laundry to wash everyone's clothes. Automatically. Without asking for anything.

"You're not bound to me, you know that right?" Jonghyun asks after Minhyun freezes over.

"Maybe you should tell yourself that." Minhyun snaps back, without any bite to it. Jonghyun laughs.

"I am bound to everyone I know, it seems." Jonghyun sounds resigned as he takes the bag from Minhyun's rigid grasp, tiping the entire load into the washing machine and flipping the buttons with a kind of swift efficiency.

The third instance is when Hyunbin hugs him, and the first thing Minhyun does is to tuck him into his side. He tenses, and Hyunbin leans back to look at his expression with a worried frown.

"Hyung-ie?" Hyunbin asks, almost fearful, and Minhyun hurries to pacify him by wrapping him in a hug. Hyunbin's a giant baby keen on physical contact, apparently, and Minhyun allows it this once. Except it's not this once, it's happened a gazillion times the past week.

Jonghyun laughs into his face when he brings it up.

"Loosen up, Min." Jonghyun says. "We're still young."

 _Are we?_ Minhyun wants to ask back, but watches with stony silence as Jonghyun babies Daniel's sore throat.  _Can you even say that about yourself, old soul?_

 

They dance their feet to shreds, quite literally. The back of Minhyun's ankles are rubbed red and raw from his old, threadbare shoes and thin socks. Sometimes, at night, he sneezes and the sound awakens Jonghyun from what little sleep he has managed to obtain. Minhyun's always been easily cold, with Jonghyun the opposite: He was always too warm, overheating and sweaty most of the time.

Minhyun doesn't protest as Jonghyun slips into his bunk, flipping him easily over. He lets Jonghyun tuck himself into his chest, letting the smaller warm him up. 

"Minhyun-hyung?" Daniel had asked one frigid afternoon, where the air conditioning was spluttering and half dead. 

"Yeah?" Minhyun smiles curiously at him.

"Are you dating Jonghyun-hyung?" He asked so innocently, and Minhyun was shocked.

"No..." Minhyun had said, tilting his head.

"Oh." Came the reply, and Daniel had looked almost  _disappointed._ "Forget I ever said anything."

When Minhyun tells Jonghyun, the other is quiet.

"Do you want to?" Jonghyun asks suddenly, and Minhyun blushes.

"Hell no." He vents, and Jonghyun smiles, relieved. 

"We're more than that." Jonghyun says what they are thinking, and Minhyun nods, thinking.

"I don't want to kiss you or have sex with you." Minhyun observes, and Jonghyun laughs at his bluntness. "I  _do_ want to grow old with you, though."

Jonghyun becomes serious, winding an arm around Minhyun's waist. 

"Me too." Jonghyun says, shy, and Minhyun slings an arm around his shoulders. "Always together."

"Never apart." Minhyun nods resolutely, and they move to dinner.


	2. lock & key

"God, you look dumb." Minhyun laughs as Moonbok troops past him sullenly to the sink. The other's hair is matted on all sides with what looks like a failed braid. 

"Dongbin and Justin are  _monsters."_ Moonbok spits out, scrubbing the pink lipstick marks on his face.

"Sexy." Jonghyun's low rasp drifts in as he comes in to fix the rings on his favourite hat. Minhyun's smile drops slightly for some reason, and the slip causes his jaw to clench with fustration.

"Shut up, Jonghyun." Moonbok frowns, and stamps out, leaving Jonghyun in fits. He turns to follow, and Jonghyun looks at him, reading him easily.

"We okay?" 

"Something shifted." Minhyun says, eyes distant. "Give me a day or so."

The smile on Jonghyun's face fades and the attempt to paste it back on makes Minhyun's heart clench.

"Don't take too long." He whispers, teasing. Minhyun looks away, biting his tongue. It was funny how he had picked up almost all of the other's habits.

"Yeah." He says to the reflection of himself into the mirror. "Don't worry."

 

The problem with taking a break with Jonghyun was that it was nearly impossible. The fact that the other had wrapped himself into Minhyun's life was unexplainable: it just  _happened._

The other factor was that Kim damn Jonghyun was so  _distracting._

It had been established that Jonghyun was small.

He wasn't  _tiny,_ but compared with Minhyun's tall frame he had seemed like a small stuffed toy. Minhyun wasn't used to  _sharing._  

He has only himself to blame, he tells himself, watching Hyunbin burrow his chin into the mass of bed hair on Jonghyun's head. He knew the feeling. Jonghyun's body was not muscular, but not skinny either. It had enough meat to make him huggable, and his height made the top of his head and the juncture between his collarbone and shoulder perfect rests for heads. Another great spot was his stomach or his thighs.

Minhyun shakes himself out of his thoughts. Jonghyun catches his eye and flinches slightly, turning his body away. Hyunbin turns to Minhyun with a perplexed look, but he can only shrug as he pulls in his green hoodie.

"They're not dating?" Jaehwan's incredulous voice breaks his train of thought as he strides towards the gym. Stopping, he turns to the boy, who's deep in conversation with Daniel.

"Who is?" He asks, interested.

"Nothing, hyung." Daniel gives him a sort of awkward, terrified smile, grabbing Jaehwan by the sleeve and tugging him away.

"They just do everything together." Minhyun hears him explain, and he continues his trek to the gym. 

Guanlin is there on the treadmill, and Minhyun smiles at him in greeting. He places his towel down, clicking the buttons and starting a slow jog.

Lost in his thoughts, he misses the sunset and Guanlin's goodbye. It's only the growl of his stomach that stops him, and he moves off to shower and then to dinner.

"How long?" Jonghyun pleads with him, and Minhyun doesn't dare to touch him.

"Soon." He says, pushing his rice around his plate. He leaves without taking a bite, and Jonghyun helps him with his tray.

The next day begins with stilted instructions, and the team encounters their first disruption between Jonghyun and himself.

"Hyunbin, left." Jonghyun says, and Minhyun turns to frown at him.

"What formation is this?" He asks, and Jonghyun smoothens his confusion over with a careful, blank look.

"Second verse." He says.

"Isn't it better if we cut behind rather than in front of Hyunbin for this part?" Minhyun questions his judgement for the first time in front of the others and Seongwoo's bantering with Jaehwan dies off.

"The timing is so short, if we cut behind him it'll take too long to get to the end." Jonghyun says, showing visible restraint.

 _Look at me._ Minhyun thinks and Jonghyun moves to hit play on the iPad on the floor.

 

He feels the beginning of a black out in the TV lounge, where he battles against Daehwi in a game of chess. The other is good, and Minhyun has to think harder to beat him. He enjoys the competition, until black spots crowd his vision.

Shaking his head, he manages to dispell them for a short amount of time, but the spots come back. His head begins to pound and he leans slightly too forward on his elbows, nearly slamming his forehead onto the wooden chessboard.

"Hyung?" Daehwi asks, concerned. "Are you okay?"

The moment Minhyun opens his mouth, the world tilts sideways, and he slips off the chair onto the ground. His head makes a dull sound as it hits the ground, cushioned by the carpet, and his eyes slip closed.

 _Shit._ He thinks, hearing the thudding beat of his heart increase in his panic. 

"Hyung!" Daehwi is shouting. "Someone help!" 

His senses go on alert and he hears the door bang open. 

"What happened to him?" Comes an unfamilliar voice, and Minhyun struggles to identify it.

"I don't know!" Daehwi sounds panicked, and Minhyun tries to roll his eyes. In this situation, it would be common sense to get the staff or something.

The unidentified other seems to realise this, telling them he'll get someone. Minhyun is helped on his feet a moment later.

It's a while before they get him into an air conditioned room, and Minhyun's ears are assaulted by the panicked sounds of a dozen other trainees.

"Get  _out_ of my way." Comes Jonghyun's hardened voice. Minhyun feels Jonghyun's warm hands cover his cheeks.

"Torchlight." Jonghyun tells someone above him and Minhyun feels the odd sensation of his eyelids tugged open. "Not dilated."

A hand comes to support his jaw and his mouth is coaxed open.

"He's dehydrated." Jonghyun says with an annoyed sigh, closing his mouth with gentle hands and calling for help and a waterbottle. Minhyun tries to swallow the water trickling down his throat, and Jonghyun is patient, pouring small streams of water.

"I think he needs an IV." Jonghyun reports coldly and someone talks to him in low tones Minhyun can't hear.

He senses the change in atmosphere as Jonghyun's voice goes frigid and the fingers around his hand tighten.

"I don't care how difficult it is." Jonghyun bites off every word, and Minhyun struggles to open his eyes. "Give me a car, and  _I'll_ send him."

Jonghyun argues loudly with the staff, and Minhyun's heart beat calms slightly at his presence.

"We don't have time for this. His heart is going into palpitations." He's lifted onto someone's back, and then he truly faints, losing consciousness entirely.

 

"You should drink more water." He hears first. It's Jonghyun's voice, clearly enough. His skin registers the coolness of the surroundings and the itch of a blanket. He moves a hand, feeling the weight of a few blankets pressing down on him. There's a clean, antiseptic smell burying into his nostrills. _Hospital._

When he opens his eyes, he sees Jonghyun's hand tucked into his left. He clenches once, and he clenches back. Jonghyun's left cheek is pressed against the mattress, looking up at him. His eyes are tired.

"Welcome back." He says simply, and Minhyun swallows behind the wave of fatigue.

"Want to get in?" He asks. 

"I'll jostle the IV bag..." Jonghyun protests, then sighs as Minhyun shuffles resolutely over. He crawls in, tossing one of the blankets into the visitor's chair.

He's warm and small against his chest, and Minhyun knows that he's pressing an ear to him to hear his heart beat. Jonghyun slides a hand over his torso, and he hooks a leg over his in retaliation.

"Go back to sleep, we'll be fine." Jonghyun whispers comfortingly, and Minhyun presses his nose to the crown of his best friend's head.

"Mm. Goodnight, Jju-ya."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> forgot that I had this written I'm so sorry!! comment below ♡

**Author's Note:**

> i opened a twitter account so follow me on there!!! my username is @wildflower_kjh and if u tell me who u are in the comments I'll follow u back! :-)


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